1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to facilitating data visualization. More particularly, the embodiments relate to the use of speedometer dial animation to view data points in a chart.
2. Discussion
Graphics are an extremely effective way to communicate information, and a variety of graphical charts are often used to visualize data. Some of the more popular graphic chart types are pie charts, vertical bar charts, horizontal bar charts, data plot charts, line trend charts, bubble charts, and so on. Each of these chart types displays data in a different manner in an effort to improve data visualization and user recognition of data relationships. Such graphical charts have been adopted by a wide variety of software systems that deal with data visualization.
While some data visualization techniques have been acceptable under certain circumstances, a number of difficulties remain. For example, many of the above approaches are limited in their ability to help the user perceive differences between data when the amount of data is relatively large. Specifically, there is a threshold beyond which a user is unable to distinguish between bars in a horizontal bar chart or lines in a line chart. The same is true for many other types of charts. There is therefore a need to facilitate data visualization in a manner that improves user perception when many data points are presented.